Several factors, including the wide adoption of the Internet and the convergence of various communication media have lead to a phenomenal growth in the amount communications bandwidth that is required in the world. While much effort is being expended at establishing new networks to provide the needed bandwidth, the cost of constructing such networks can be very high. Further, right of ways, cable paths or other physical requirements may not be readily available for deploying such new networks in some locations. Also, the costs of earlier, lower bandwidth networks may not yet have been fully recouped and a telecommunications carrier may thus have a strong economic disincentive to commence construction of a new network.
It is therefore desired to have a system and apparatus which can work with at least some part of an existing networking infrastructure but which can provide an increased effective bandwidth through the network.